4 ms·
A similar argument can be made against downloadable audiobooks, but in that case, they're far cheaper than buying CDs. As an example, The Hitchhiker's Guide To
by MaxBarraclough 6y ago
A similar argument can be made against downloadable audiobooks, but in that case, they're far cheaper than buying CDs.
As an example, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: Primary Phase. The CD version is £20 from Amazon, whereas on Amazon Audible it's at most £8. (I'm not counting the £18 listed price on Audible, as one can simply 'subscribe' for £8, buy the audiobook with the token, then immediately unsubscribe. I put 'at most' because their per-book price is lower with a high-volume subscription.)
In this case, I'm ok with the DRM'ed non-physical version, as it's so much cheaper. It's true I can't easily gift the audiobooks or leave them in my will. It's also true that Amazon has the power to lock me out of my library, and if Audible disappears, I probably lose my library.
- gmac 6y agoAbsolutely, and also for 'buying' movies on Amazon, Apple, Google and (especially) smaller services. The product you're buying is really: rental of unknown duration. And unless that's really substantially cheaper than actually buying it on disc, it's a terrible deal.
- _pmf_ 6y ago> And unless that's really substantially cheaper than actually buying it on disc, it's a terrible deal. It's a pretty good deal when I don't have a disc player of any kind (well, CD).
- gmac 6y agoWell, maybe, though an external DVD drive probably costs no more than three or four movies, and then you can make yourself non-DRM digital copies too. (As long as you don't need BluRay and HD).
- toast0 6y agoBluRay ripping is possible, too, although not as simple and easy as DVD ripping.
- PascLeRasc 6y agoI place a big value on not owning things I don't want, like external DVD drives. I'd pay more for a virtual one-time-viewing copy than I would for a DVD even if it came with a DVD drive. I specifically want to not own one.
- MaxBarraclough 6y agoI've never used this feature, but apparently Audible/iTunes permits you to burn to a CD exactly once. Far cheaper than buying the 'proper' CD.
- ghaff 6y agoIt's not a terrible deal if I prefer it in digital form (most fiction in particular) especially if I'm likely to only read it once. In normal circumstances, digital is much better for me as I can travel with all the books I want.
- ver_ture 6y agoIt's a good deal if you want to own the ability to read digitally for the agreed upon time period. Read = 1, Property = null. It's a terrible deal if you want to own the e-book for a second read, because you haven't bought that.
- nzealand 6y agoYou can download audible files, and convert them later to non-DRM.